Testing waters: Cambam, ArtCam and Meshcam. What others are worth trying?

[Cux350z]

So far I have installed trial versions of cambam, meshcam, and artcam.

I will be using autocad 2012 and solidworks to generate my models. I have gimp to do my art work if necessary.

I purchased a Romaxx HS1 in december, should be here next week. Been lurking the forums and signed up last month. I will be running my machine with mach3. Purchased my bits and precision collet from precisebits.com

The 6 week lead time has allowed me to play with the software some.

My thoughts so far:

Cambam -
-archaic looking
-pricey when you compare it to meshcam/artcam feature set
-more tedious to get results
-lots of settings
-not very easy to move around

Meshcam-
-Very intuitive
-Does 3d, flip, 4axis
-Creator has a nice forum, blog and is active on forums
-Takes in customer feedback and updates the program
-From start to finish the process is very step driven and easy to do
-Price is good for the feature set. May even be able to run MicroCarve instead of opting for Meshcam Art

Artcam Express-
-Lots of features
-Modules that you can add are nice but are very $$$$$$
-Does not appear to do what I need it to do with 3d stl models.
-Menu overload when compared to meshcam. Just too many things to learn at once.
-Required internet explorer 8 to be installed. Meh. Probably so they could have all the purchase options in the demo which was annoying


So far I am looking at pulling the trigger on meshcam. Any other software I should try out that are similar to meshcam?

[Cux350z]

Going to give FreeMill a whirl too.

[EBC]

vectric...

[Cux350z]

Any worth mentioning about vectric? Does it compare well to any of the already mentioned softwares?

[Cux350z]

Meshcam.....it would be nice if you imported PLT files.

[ger21]

Meshcam imports 3D "meshes", either .stl or .dxf.
Or, it can create a 3D mesh from an image file.
PLT files are 2D files, and MeshCAM isn't a 2D (2.5D) CAM program.
MeshCAM can only use 2D files to define machining regions of the 3D files.

[Cux350z]

I just need a way to do text engraving too.


Looks like the price of meshcam went up.........ugh

[ger21]

Unfortunately (for you), that's just not what MeshCAM was created to do.

You might want to check out Stickfont, which might do what you want, and it's free.

[stewi]

For text engraving you could use DeskEngrave from DesKAM CNC Home
There is more to test: CAM Products
I narrowed my search down to Meshcam as well.

[LeeWay]

I have an old version of Meshcam and Vectrics Cut 3D. I like the later better, though both work well.
Vcarve from Vectric does text well also. You can bundle Cut 3D and Vcarve, but not cheap.
I do think it is a worthwhile investment though, even for a hobbyist.

[hans@eureka-tec]

Milling and routing

[LeeWay]

It is the one I use the most for 2.5D stuff. Excellent and fast.